Quality Assurance Technician Job Description, Duties, and Responsibilities

This post provides detailed information on the quality assurance technician job description, including the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they commonly perform.

It also highlights the major requirements that you may be asked to meet to be hired for the quality assurance technician role by most employers/recruiters.

What Does a Quality Assurance Technician Do?

A quality assurance (QA) technician is responsible for assisting a facility to meet its quality assurance and regulatory compliance requirements.

He/she works with facility, corporate management teams, and QA leadership, with a job description that entails providing support to achieve consistent production of wholesome and best quality products by a facility.

The QA technician’s role also involves inspecting incoming products and component parts for quality standard compliance and ensures that quality issues concerning production are effectively addressed.

He/she carries out dimensional assessments of product to confirm that dimensions tally with blueprint specifications, as well as audits, inspects, and monitors assemblies and production parts as needed.

He/she performs inspection on changes to existing products as well as on new products, and also performs tests on them to ensure that requirements are complied with.

The quality assurance technician carries out inspection on stock following customer complaints; discovers possible problem with products; performs necessary tests and documents results as directed by the QA engineer to ensure requirements and specifications are met.

He/she relates with production, supply chain, and management and document incoming and/or in-process rejections so that appropriate actions can be taken to correct them.

QA technician work description also entails performing site audits of suppliers’ production and processes to ensure compliance with necessary requirements; assisting the QA engineer and the director of quality in relating with vendors to conduct test runs, provide solution to problems, monitor and follow up with quality assurance management on required corrective actions and quality documentation to make sure quality products are purchased.

He/she adheres to established specifications, procedures, and policies in conducting product and incoming material audits, as well as audits to ensure accuracy in outgoing product order on a weekly or monthly basis as required.

During the production process, the QA technician picks up products for testing at specified stages; he/she tests products for documents findings, dimensions and performance criteria, and for a variety of other qualities.

He/she carries out cycle and performance tests on assemblies and component parts and utilizes statistical process assessment techniques in recording test data where necessary.

His/her duties also involve coordinating incoming documentation for returned products as a result of customer complaints; he/she performs audit on returned parts and suggests disposition following specifications; he/she also ensure all rejected products are reported to the QA engineer as required.

To be effective on the job, the QA technician must remain current on development in the industry, including equipment and quality initiative programs.

Quality Assurance Technician Job Description Example/Sample/Template

Quality assurance technicians perform various functions in ensuring only top quality products leave their company’s production facilities.

Below is a job description sample for the role of a QA technician working in a food and beverage production plant, showing the tasks, duties, and responsibilities typically performed:

• Provide assistance to local and corporate management in carrying out changes to the food safety system of the facility; give assistance in creating, reviewing, authenticating, and maintaining food safety system documents, including standard operating procedures (SOPs) and programs working in collaboration with the quality assurance team; provide assistance in maintaining document registers and documentation
• Provide daily monitoring of facility and personnel to ensure compliance to the food safety system of the facility; perform formal audit on cGMP
• Ensure training of facility personnel on cGMPs, Risk Preventive Controls, Hazard Analysis, pre-requisite programs, and other applicable food safety system elements as required; find out new areas trainings are required
• Collect and analyse product samples as required, as well as document information derived from analysis
• Carry out chemical testing, microbiological testing, co-sampling, and physical specification compliance testing as required. Microbiological tests may include APC, E.coli, Coliform, particle size, Yeast, testing for mycotoxin presence/levels, and Mold
• Responsible for recording and submission all shipped samples to outside labs for further analyses as requested; establish professional relationships with external labs used by the facility
• Responsible for maintaining special sampling requirements for company and customers and when required analyze/submit samples
• Safely keep records of all facility analytical results; immediately report results discovered to be out of specification to the plant manager and the quality assurance manager; provide documented reports of analytical results to the operations manager, QA manager, and plant manager; also responsible for tracking and reporting data trends
• Perform calibration and maintenance of laboratory equipment, and ensure general good lab procedures
• Responsible for maintaining the right lab supplies and QA inventory, and for ordering needed supplies
• Responsible for creating certificates of analysis (COAs) for products that have been analyzed as required; maintaining data on nutritional analyses; maintaining labelled, organized retention samples of all products that have been analyzed as well as the sample library log
• Provide assistance in reviewing process control of facility as well as the monitoring records for sanitation process control; make report of any noticeable deviation or potential hazards in standard operating procedure or process control to the quality assurance manager and the plant manager
• Perform sanitation efficacy monitoring in the facility, such as swabbing and visual inspections
• Provide assistance in updating and implementing facility sanitation plans in collaboration with facility management and quality assurance management
• Responsible for the calibration of magnet and metal detection systems and ensure they are in top performance
• Ensure all finished products immediately after production are put on hold pending when all required analysis are performed; release all products for commerce that meet required specification after analysis have been performed on them, while rejecting and disposing off of all products that were found to be out of specification after being analyzed
• Responsible for inspecting raw materials coming in; assisting in investigating non-conformance and complaint about product; and provide leadership for the facility team in performing self-audits
• Ensure communication with third-party firms providing services to the facility, such as pest control contractors
• Perform water testing; establish quality assurance related SDS library; participate in ensuring applicable regulatory, customer, and company requirements are met
• Provide assistance in hosting visitors to the facility, including regulatory agency representatives and customer representatives; function as main host for the facility’s third party auditors
• Provide assistance in ensuring that applicable certifications such as Non-GMO, Kosher, Organic, and Hallal are maintained.

Requirements – Skills, Abilities, Knowledge – for Quality Assurance Technician Role

QA technicians are required to have certain skills and qualities to be effective in carrying out assigned tasks and responsibilities.

The following are major qualities, skills, experience, etc. that you will need to have to succeed on the quality assurance technician job, which also commonly make up the job requirements of most employers when they are hiring for the position:

• Profound knowledge and understanding of applicable FDA regulations and cGMP
• Possession of Bachelor’s or AA degree in a scientific discipline or equivalent in addition to two years or more working experience in a relevant, cGMP/FDA regulated industry
• Ability to communicate effectively with both internal and external personnel
• Strong experience working with electronic documentation management systems (EDMS), such as SharePoint and Oracle
• Excellent computer skills, including ability to work effectively with Microsoft Excel and Word
• Possess innovative, resourceful, and proactive disposition, committed to ensuring continuous improvement of capacity and delivering quality service
• Strong ability to expect challenges and proffer effective solutions to them
• Experience assisting regulatory inspections and/or audits.

Conclusion

This post provides exhaustive information about the duties and responsibilities of quality assurance technicians, as well as a sample job description that employers can apply in making the right description for the role in their company.

Individuals looking to get into the QA technician career will also find this post helpful in learning about the role.